Jay Thomas

Encouraged to pursue a musical career by a father who played jazz trumpet before turning to pharmacy, Jay Thomas has become a major multi-instrumentalist, equally at home on both brass and reeds. He started on trumpet, but while playing in dance bands that often had a tenor-trumpet front line requiring him to practice regularly with a tenor player, Thomas, on a whim, borrowed the sax and tried it out. Within a month he was playing gigs on tenor and picked up alto and soprano along the way. Thomas took up the flute while living in Boston because he wasn't allowed to practice on...